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Tag: new dishes

  • A Quickie…..Shashuka

    A Quickie…..Shashuka

    I love when I can find something new to do with eggs. Not just something new but something that taste great too. I mentioned in my previous post that I have come into being addicted to Pinterest. Well, while on one of my many visits to Pinterest I came across an Israeli dish named Shashuka. Now I know the name doesn’t do much on giving you a hint of what it’s made from ( well at least not in English) but I promise you it is full of flavor. Even better than the taste is the ease of making this dish. In less than 30 minutes you’ll have something that tastes wonderful and looks just as appealing. It’s something you can do and invite a couple of friends over for brunch. It won’t damage your pocket and everyone will be happy. Canned tomatoes, eggs, some herbs & spices ( I added onions, mushrooms and spinach to my base), feta cheese and some crusty bread. Who wouldn’t be happy with an invite to a meal like that? My version of Shashuka was adapted from Food 52.

    Shashuka

    • 3 tablespoons olive oil
    • 2 large onions caramelized
    • 1 container of baby portabella mushrooms, sliced
    • 2 cups rough chopped fresh spinach
    • 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes
    • 9-10 garlic cloves, chopped small
    • 1 1/2 tablespoons Pilpelchuma, store bought or recipe below
    • 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 1/4 teaspoon cumin
    • 1/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped (I used flat leaf parsley because I don’t like cilantro)
    • 4-6 eggs
    • 1/4 cup feta cheese
    • 4-6 warm pitas or grilled crusty bread

     

    Pilpelchuma

    • 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
    • 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
    • 1/2 tablespoon hot paprika
    • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne
    • 1 pinch cumin
    • 1 pinch salt
    1. Pilpelchuma: Mix ingredients together to form a paste. This will keep for 3 weeks in the fridge.
    2. Heat the oil in a large skillet or pan with lid over low heat.
    3. Add the caramelized onions, mushroom slices, chopped spinach, chopped garlic, paprika, cumin, & pilpelchuma to the pan and saute for 3-4 minutes until fragrant.
    4. Mix in the canned tomatoes & salt. Cover the pan with lid and simmer for 15 minutes. At this point, you can cool the sauce and store to use another day. Just heat it back up in the same pan and continue from here.
    5. Add and mix in the cilantro leaving a bit out of the pan to garnish with later.
    6. Make pockets in the sauce with a wooden spoon or spatula and very carefully crack the eggs into them. Make sure to space the eggs out. There should be sauce in between each egg for them to cook properly (and prettily).
    7. Immediately cover the pan, turn the heat up a bit to medium and cook without lifting the lid for 4-7 minutes depending on how you like your egg yolks. 4 for runny yolk and 7 for hard cooked yolk..
    8. Eat right away while its piping hot. Sopping up all the sauce with the pita. Enjoy!

    So get out your contact list, invite a few friends over and go forward & make new memories.

     

  • Miami Life

    Miami Life

    I just got back from a wonderful week in Miami courtesy of my girlfriend Nykki. There was plenty of food, fun and friends.  I’ve decided that this will be a blog of mostly pics. We all know that  ” a picture is worth a thousand words” and I hope you can see what Miami Life was all about for me.

     Cuban Food….YES!

    Celebrating 77 grand years with Bea Hines ( Miami Historical Figure)

     The Night Nykki Learned How to Breathe Fire

    Groupies? Us? Nah….

    Trying to get in the last of my foodie tour

    Random Miami

    The icing on the cake for me was my chance to meet my favorite Reggae Artist Beres Hammond. Unfortunately No pics but that was okay because the hug and the brief chat was enough to have made my entire year. Thanks Nykki and Pam for helping me enjoy Miami. Can’t wait to return.

  • A Healthier YOU

    A Healthier YOU

    I know on the blog I share a lot of things that may not be so health conscience but they aren’t meant to be eaten on a daily basis. If you follow me on social media you can get a feel for my daily eating habits, which isn’t all bad. With that being said I approached Miss Ebby K of I am EbbyK (a blog about fashion, fitness and faith) about being a guest on her blog. She loved the idea. So I share with my readers what is going to be shared with her readers. I hope you guys enjoy and take a moment to visit Miss Ebby K’s blog. Now go forward and make memories.

    Stuffed Squash

    The food pyramid says …oh wait it’s no longer a pyramid it’s now a plate. Right, so it suggests that as an adult woman you should get between 2-2½ cups of veggies daily and as an adult man you should get 2½-3 cups of veggies daily. So I’m always looking for ways to get vegetables in my meal. From adding fresh spinach and sweet bell peppers to my scrambled eggs or adding shredded zucchini and carrots to my spaghetti sauce when I’m creating an Italian styled meal. In the following recipe you can more than meet your daily vegetable requirement. I served it with brown rice cooked with vegetable broth and olive oil (instead of butter).

     

    Stuffed Zucchini

    serves 2

     

    1 large zucchini 7”-8” long

    1 small yellow 4”-5” long squash, diced

    3 mushrooms (white button or baby portobella), stems removed

    1-2 cloves of garlic minced

    ½ of small onion, diced

    ¼ sweet bell pepper, diced

    1 stalk celery, diced

    1 small carrot, shredded

    ¾ cup kale, rough chopped

    ¾ cup spinach, rough chopped

    ¼ cup of broth/stock ( chicken or vegetable)

    ¼ – ½ cup of panko breadcrumbs

    3 tablespoons shredded parmesan cheese

    Olive oil

    Kosher salt

    Black pepper

     

    Heat oven to 450. Half zucchini. Using a spoon remove the core of the zucchini creating a shell. Save core to the side. When both halves are cored drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Take the reserved zucchini cores and dice.  Heat a saute pan with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil add onions,bell peppers, celery, yellow squash and diced zucchini core. Saute vegetables for about 2-3 minutes. Add garlic, carrots, spinach and kale cooking for an additional 2-3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add broth and then add breadcrumbs until mixture starts to come together. Turn off heat. Add 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese. Fill zucchini halves with mixture, over stuffing. Sprinkle breadcrumbs and remaining parmesan cheese on top of halves then drizzle with olive oil. Bake in oven for 15- 20 minutes or until shell is tender.

     

    You know that spaghetti sauce I mentioned earlier in the post? Why not take a chance on another stuffed squash. Buy a spaghetti squash, half it, scoop out seeds and then place it cut side down into a casserole dish. Add enough broth to cover the bottom of the pan. This helps to steam the squash and adds flavor. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 400 degree pre-heated oven for 30-40 minutes or until tender. Remove squash from pan. Saute your favorite vegetables and add to your favorite sauce. Take a fork and flake up the spaghetti like strands of the squash then top with your sauce mixture and parmesan cheese. Bake until cheese is melted, 5-10 minutes. Eat with a side salad.

     

    I hope this moves you closer to your healthier you in 2015. Now go forward and make memories.


    The Chef In Pearls is a blog where food and fashion meet. A retired Chef learning to live life to the fullest. Please follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @TheChefInPearls  

  • Gettysburger….

    If you’re a “Scandal” fan, of which I am, you have heard on several occasions them mention the infamous burger joint Gettysburger,  Well you can only imagine the shock and awe that came across my face when I found out that Gettysburger did not exist. How was I gonna replicate one of their burgers, for the mid-season premier, if they didn’t really exist. In my mind I had already planned this post detailing how I went about gathering ingredients, prepping and then preparing my wonderful version of a Gettysburger burger. what would I do now?

    I did the next best thing. I created a burger I felt would exist on the menu at Gettysburger. I created the Insde-Out Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger with a side of Garlic Parmesan Steak Fries. I went as far to make the pickles from scratch and a chipotle mayo for the buns.  I mean if you gonna go with something that doesn’t exist why not go all out.

    cucmbersI used half of an English cucumber cut on the bias. I then brined the slices  in a heated mixture of salt, sugar, a crushed garlic clove, a few red pepper flakes, fresh dill, a bay leaf and vinegar.

    PicklesViola …..Pickles….. well they became pickles once the liquid cooled.

    Then for the burger I did what my Mom taught me to do oh so many years ago.  A package of onion-mushroom soup mix,  black pepper, worcestershire sauce, an egg and a handful of breadcrumbs.  Once combined I made a thin patty and placed a slice of cheddar cheese that I folded in half along the center of the patty.  Then I made another patty and placed that on top of the first sealing the cheese in the middle.

    inside outburgerNow  all I had to do was cook them. I am about the slow and go when cooking a good burger.  Medium heat and I never flatten the patty while cooking ( your squeezing all the luscious juices out…who wants a dry burger?). Haven’t you been told to not play with you food? Well don’t fiddle with your burger while it’s cooking let it do what it has to……that’s cook. I only turn my burger ONCE during cooking.

    Besides the pickles and the burgers I also made a quick spread for my burger buns, Chipotle Mayo. I took a 1/4 cup of mayo and added 2 teaspoons of chipolte salsa ( you can find it in a can in the international section of your supermarket) and mixed. Depending on how spicy you like it you can add more or less of the chipotle salsa.

    As for the Garlic Parmesan Steak Fries it was simple ( no I didn’t make the fries from scratch) I prepared a bag of steak fries in the oven ( I try to avoid frying as much as possible). I sprinkled them with some olive oil to help crisp them up in the oven and dusted them with a mixture of kosher salt and black pepper.  About 5 minutes before they were to finished in the oven I heated a 1/4 cup of olive oil and 1  1/2 tablespoons of minced garlic. I pulled the fries from the oven  dumped them in a bow,l added the heated olive oil along with a handful of shredded Parmesan and minced parsley. Then I tossed everything together making sure the fries were well coated. This was the end result of my hard work ( not that hard )

    the finished product

    Yeah if I were running the Infamously Fictitious Gettysburger this would be on the menu.

     

  • So you wanna challenge me???

    About 2 weeks ago my girlfriend had gone to a new hangout spot and had eaten what she thought was heaven….Philly Cheese steak Egg rolls.  It wasn’t enough for her to post pics of all the fun she was having( without me no less) but she decided to tag me in a challenge on social media.  What? For everyone to see? How could I not accept.

    Well since we were having another “snowmegaddon” here in Atlanta I decided I would treat the family to a new meal and take Miss Nykki up on her challenge.

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